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Biography

John Portineus Greene was an early leader in the Latter Day Saint movement.

Greene was born in Herkimer, New York. He was a Methodist minister at Mendon, New York. He was friends with Heber Chase Kimball (1801-1868) and they claimed to witness "signs in the heavens" on September 22, 1827.

In late spring 1830, was the First Missionary Journey of Samuel Smith to the nearby town of Mendon, NY. At the time it was thought this mission was a failure since he could only hand out just one Book of Mormon and was otherwise met with much rejection and discouragement. But in just two years time, that one book would come into the hands of the Greene, Young and Kimball families which would be the source by which many thousands would join the new church and also the source of many future prominent church leaders.

Greene would serve a total of 11 missions for the church. In May 1834 Greene baptized three people while serving as a missionary in Villanova, Chautauqua County, New York. He was the original president of the Eastern States Mission in May 1839. He published a pamphlet about the 1838 expulsion of the Mormons from Missouri in 1839.

Greene was the chief of police in Nauvoo, Illinois in 1844. As such he supervised the destruction of the press of the Nauvoo Expositor. When Joseph Smith (1805-1844) and his brother Hyrum Smith (1800-1844) submitted to incarceration in Carthage, Greene was part of a group of men that accompanied them to the Carthage Jail.

After the Smiths were killed, Greene supported the succession claims of James Strang, but Greene died in the midst of the succession crisis. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (Strangite) alleges that Greene was "martyred by poison ... for disclosing that James Strang was appointed by Joseph Smith."